Amazon has beaten Google and Apple in how consumers access their musical world; unveiling their brand new Amazon Cloud player.
The Cloud player allows consumers to buy their music and play it anywhere they desire.
"You can buy once — buy your music once and play it anywhere — and it lets you get your whole music library in one place," Amazon Vice President Bill Car told NPR.
The music consumers decide to purchase from Amazon, will be instantly stored in an Amazon-hosted locker -- or Cloud Drive. Surprisingly, this service is free. Users who to decide to purchase their music from other websites or companies such as iTunes, can have their music transferred by Cloud Drive without any charges.
Basically, the Cloud Drive is a device that allows users to access their music on any computer connected to the Internet. Additionally, users can transfer their music via Cloud Drive to Android phones, as well--again, free of charge.
Cloud Player was also launched along with the Cloud Drive. Cloud Player basically acts as a media player--like Windows Media Player, for instance.
For iPhone and iPad users, the Cloud Player is not available.
"Consumers wanting to keep a large quantity of music, video and other stuff in Amazon's cloud will have to pay a fee," Wendy Kaufman of NPR wrote.
Carr said that every Amazon customer will get 5 GB of free storage space, according to Kaufman. 5GB is equivalent to about 100 songs.
Users who want additional storage space for their musical tastes, will have to purchase additional storage plans for $20 per year, reports Kaufman.
Amazon's Cloud Player should serve as another breakthrough in the musical realm for consumers. Google, Apple, and Amazon were supposedly competing to release their new cloud players. Amazon, however, was the first to release it.
Carr tells Kaufman that the advantages of the cloud-based storage spills over onto the music industry, as well, not only to the consumers.
Record labels have filed copyright infringement suits against MP3tunes.com in Nov. 2007. MP3tunes utilizes a feature that allows users to store "unauthorized downloads".
In addition to it being beneficial for the record label companies, the fact that the service is free is particularly impressive. People can store their music, up to 1000 songs, for free. For many avid music listeners, 1000 songs is not enough, but it is sufficient considering that the service is free.
Amazon's Cloud Player is a prompt message to both Google and Apple to step-up their music storing technologies. Will Google and Apple come-up with even better music storing devices? Nobody knows for sure.
What's certain, however, is that the Cloud Player is a breakthrough in the music consuming business.
Khalid Shakran - A passionate sports fan, intrigued by U.S. politics (both foreign and domestic), and looking to refine my writing skills.
